CFSAN/Office of Food Additive Safety

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responding to the notice, dated December 22, 2005, that you submitted on behalf of Tyson Foods, Inc. in accordance with the agency's proposed regulation, proposed 21 CFR 170.36 (62 FR 18938; April 17, 1997; Substances Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS); the GRAS proposal). FDA received the notice on December 23, 2005, filed it on December 28, 2005, and designated it as GRAS Notice No. GRN 000188.

The subject of the notice is carbon monoxide. The notice informs FDA of the view of Tyson Foods, Inc. that carbon monoxide is GRAS, through scientific procedures, for use in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) for red meat products at levels of 5.5 milligrams/pound (12 milligrams/kilogram) of packaged meat.

In an e-mail message dated November 5, 2008, you asked that FDA cease to evaluate your notice. Given your request, we ceased to evaluate your GRAS notice, effective November 5, 2008, the date that we received your e-mail message.

In accordance with proposed 21 CFR 170.36(f), a copy of the text of this letter responding to GRN 000188, as well as a copy of the information in this notice that conforms to the information in the proposed GRAS exemption claim (21 CFR 170.36(c)(1)), is available for public review and copying via the FDA home page at http://www.fda.gov. To view or obtain an electronic copy of the text of the letter, follow the hyperlinks from the "Food" topic to the "Food Ingredients and Packaging" section to the "Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS)" page where the GRAS Inventory is listed.